pick walking set up simpler

use shape parenting to make your control curves pickwalkable
it's a mel command: parent
that uses these flags: -relative -shape
and these arguements: name of shape node to transplant, and name of joint you want to transplant onto

make sure you get the top node, not just the translate node (below the shape node)

parent -relative -shape nurbsCircleShape2 joint2;

(nurbsCircleShape2 is our control curve top node)

so now when you select the nurb circle you select the actual joint so you can pick walk,but the curves are put in the wrong spot, if you scale the curve you'll actually be scaling the joint, so you need to do it from component mode and move the verts

viola pretty simple

portal

interview with the makers over at GamaSutra

EW: We hoped to do that. We had this theory that games tell two stories. There's the "story story" which is the cutscenes and the dialogue, and the "gameplay story" which is the story that's described by the actions you take in the game world. The theory was that the closer you could bring those two stories together, the more satisfying the game would be.

I spent years and years reviewing games, and that's something that always bothered me in games, where the delta between the two stories was real high. I promised myself someday that if I ever got the chance, I'd try to make a game where that delta was almost zero. It was a conscious decision that we wanted to try and keep that world.

KS: It takes you out of the experience, really. You're doing one thing, then all of a sudden the story is telling you, "No, no. You actually did this other thing." "But no, I just did the... all right, fine. You're right, then." I agree with Erik that the closer the gameplay interacts with the story, the more impact it has with players.


they also talked about the fact that they were playtesting as soon as possible, so they didn't make a big finished thing and then playtested, they platested the second they could without any polish, which helped them focus on fun, instead of working on it forever and hoping it winds up fun

revealing character

I keep taking note of this same idea, and everytime I run across it I feel compelled to write it down again.

anyway, this time from Jean-Denis Haas blogging about Lost

"Long story short, present the character with a conflict and show the audience the choices he/she/it makes in order to deal with that situation. Those choices will reveal their true character (and make your shot much more interesting)."

he's talking about a girl who's painting her toenails after the airplane crashes, and how that choice of secondary action says a lot about who she is